Saulteau First Nations announces Red Dress Day plans 2025

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Red Dress Day, highlighting and honouring murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls, was first recognized in 2010. (Dave Jeffers, Facebook)

MOBERLY LAKE, B.C. – A northeast B.C. First Nation has announced details about honouring Red Dress Day next week.

A post from Saulteau First Nations (SFN) on its Facebook page says the event honouring Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, May 5th.

“We gather in remembrance and solidarity for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Awareness Day,” part of the post reads.

“Let us walk together — to remember, to raise awareness and to say with one voice: no more stolen sisters.”

A walk will begin at the Boucher Lake turn-off, 35 kilometres north of Chetwynd on Highway 29.

It will conclude at the Fire Lake/Moberly Lake turn-off, a lake accessed by Fire Lake Access Road. A barbecue will follow starting at 7:00 p.m.

All residents are invited to attend the walk and the subsequent barbecue.

Red Dress Day, marked on May 5th, started as an art project by Indigenous artist Jaime Black in 2010 when he displayed a red dress installation at the University of Winnipeg in Manitoba.

According to Statistics Canada, 490 Indigenous women and girls were murdered between 2009 and 2021 in Canada. That rate was six times higher than non-Indigenous women.

For more information about SFN’s walk and barbecue, contact SFN’s community events coordinator Carlee Westgate at cwestgate@saulteau.com or Tylene Paquette at tpaquette@saulteau.com.

The Fort St. John Métis Society and Fort St. John Friendship Society are also marking Red Dress Day this year, including with a walk of remembrance and artisan market.